Western Han Terracotta Army of Yangjiawan 09

The Yangjiawan terracotta army (Ch: 杨家湾兵马俑) is a small funeral terracotta army of the

Western Han The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...

period, which was excavated in Yangjiawan, in the region of

Xianyang Xianyang ( zh, s=咸阳 , p=Xiányáng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now int ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

, a few kilometers north of

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

. The terracotta army belong to auxiliary tombs to the mausoleum of the first Han Emperor Gaozu (ruled 202–195 BCE) at Changling. The terracottas are now on display in the Xianyang Museum. One of the tombs (Yangjiawan 4) is thought to have belonged to the Western Han general

Zhou Bo Zhou Bo (; died 169 BC), posthumously known as Marquis Wu of Jiang (), was a Chinese official who served as a chancellor of the early Han dynasty. A friend of the Han dynasty's founding emperor Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu), he joined Liu in the reb ...

, who died in 169, or his son. The tomb has about 3,000 cavalry statuettes, with an approximate height of 60 cm. Compared to the early and much more famous

Terracotta Army The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting him in his aft ...

of the first

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

Emperor

Qin Shihuang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary dynasty in Chine ...

(210 BCE), the terracotta statue of Yangjiawan are much smaller in size, but also much less militaristic, much softer and elegant in their style: "Horse tails curl in fanciful fashion and human figures possess a doll-like innocence". All this was possibly in response to the Han perception of Qin Shihuang as a tyrannical ruler. Still, they continue a trend in naturalistic sculpture which was initiated by the Terracotta Army of Qin Shihuang, departing from the much simpler and sparser sculptural tradition of the preceding centuries, as seen in the Taerpo horserider (4th-3rd century BCE) for example.

Gallery

File:14 Western Han Terracotta Soldier of Yangjiawan- Flag Holder.jpg, Flag holder File:Western Han Terracotta Army of Yangjiawan 25.jpg, Horserider and foot soldiers, Western Han Terracotta Army of Yangjiawan File:22 Western Han Terracotta Soldier of Yangjiawan- Large Cavalryman.jpg, Large cavalryman File:指挥俑杨家湾.jpg, A painted soldier

References

{{reflist Archaeological artifacts of China Funerary art Military art Terracotta sculptures

Gallery

See also

References